Shenanigans
by TyrantChimera
Summary: Sometimes, Omega mused, pre-programmed loyalty sucked. Especially when you were apparently loyal to an idiot. How the heck does one split up into multiple bodies and STILL got most of them killed simultaneously? Blasted Model W! In which Pandora and Prometheus get a definite promotion. Post ZXA. Rated mostly for language.
1. Your luck sucks my dude

Hey everyone! You can ignore me if you'd like, but before we begin the fic, I just wanted to say a few thigns! First of all, thanks to all my long-time readers who have stuck with me and reviewed my works over the years. I love you all to bits and thank you. Reviews and comments are the lifeblood of any artist or writer, and it makes my day when you tell me how you feel! And if you're new here, we;;;... thanks for coming!

First of all, these are definitely some short chapters for this fic. I wanted to experiment a bit in order for it to be a bit easier for mobile readers. This fic was also an experiement in me completely writing a fic before releasing it. That was I could help keep the plot more consistent... although I still have to beta the whole thing. of all, one of the main reasons I did this was... it was not supposed to be a multi-chaptered fic. This bloody thing was supposed to be a oneshot! I mean it! But then it kinda grew legs. And wings. And claws. Aaaaand... yeah. I had to go get the flyswatter. But not matter how I tried to finish it, it just kept growing a life of its own! Ending it was TOUGH. But thankfully for all of you, I've chopped it into bits and made a multi chaptered fic.

Anyways. Yay! Have fuuuuuuun~! Thanks for reading!

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He was Omega. Centuries old, and unmatched in single combat. He was the God of destruction. Devil reploid, the original maverick, source of the madness of the maverick virus and murderer of billions. He was named many things, for he was a truly terrifying for for all who opposed him, a monstrously powerful being and deity of the end days.

He was also stuck dragging two bodies from the bottom of the ocean.

Covered in muck, grime, and fighting off all manner of inconsequential mechaniloids, the dark red reploid was doing his utmost to rescue two beings that held the genetic code of Weil, the man that had programmed Omega into being loyal to him. Weil used to be a cunning and cruel mastermind, intent on the suffering and destruction of the world and all its inhabitants. Now, Omega had no idea who or what the man had become since they'd separated centuries ago, especially because he was currently getting all sorts of indistinct signals from numerous sources above his head. All these sources, giving off codes and commanding with programs only Weil knew, had apparently merged into one, and as Omega finally breached the surface of the water he caught glimpse of a giant airship. It held the shape of a gigantic serpent eating its own tail.

Omega groaned, because that too held the genetic signature of Lord Weil. The God of Destruction heaved the two bodies he held onto the beach and turned, trying to understand the mixed signals he was receiving.

The airship, above, seemed to be producing mechaniloids en masse, and was broadcasting signals to everything nearby to destroy. Destroy foes, defend the fortress, destroy, destroy. It was a call to destruction, Omega realized, an all-too-familiar series of data he himself had once broadcast when Weil commanded him to use the Dark elf to command reploids across the globe centuries ago. This signal was much the same, although it lacked the ability to control unwilling hosts.

It was yet another call that Omega wasn't sure he could answer.

It had been the same story for the past few weeks. It had started with a strange, reverse earthquake. Omega, who had managed to locate a remnant of Weil years ago, had settled in an underground area, awaiting the sleeping form of his master to awake and command him just as he had long ago. In settling down, he had completely missed when the strange hunk of metal (a model W core, he had learned later) had been extracted from the bedrock surrounding it. By the time the thing had awoken and sent him signals, it was too late to do anything. The signals had cut out, and Omega, stuck in the cave, could do nothing.

Then, the quake happened. A few years after the model W core had been taken, another destruction signal had been broadcast by another sleeping core in some ruins above. The earth itself shifted with the power emanating from the Model W. Omega, who could apparently alter reality just by existing, (green crystals, like those in cyberspace, and some sort of mix with energy crystals, had been steadily forming in the cave he'd resided in ever since he'd moved there,) exerted whatever powers he could over the robotic stone of the wreckage he was currently underneath. This, combined with Model W, apparently formed a gravitational anomaly. Omega, for once in many, many years, had been able to escape the cave, fleeing upwards into a forest to avoid the gravitational anomaly behind him.

However, when he finally reached the forest ruins where the model W core had been located, it too was gone. Omega cursed his luck, and continued trying to find these cores. He did not know, truly, what they were, only that the sleeping soul of his master seemed to reside in them. Omega had spent too much time with death and cyber elves to be able to ignore such a feeling of his master and to not understand what it was. He knew Weil's mind lived, at least in some form, and his programming compelled him to assist these Model W cores.

Unfortunately, his luck sucked. Twice he finally located the broadcast of a core just to find it whisked away before he could reach it. At one point he saw someone similar to one of the Guardians of Neo Arcadia, but before he could engage, whomever their allies were teleported them to safety. It was vexing, to say the least.

He'd only just managed to zero in on a signal without someone else getting to it first. And, as of course was his wont, all hell had broken loose. A giant multi-signal roared in the skies above, demanding the end of all below it, commanding legions of mavericks and making more every second.

And then there were these two he held with him right now, their signals small and pathetic fragments barely clinging onto life, their spirits, and the Model W fragments they contained, barely able to plead for help in their unconscious state.

Someone was pulling hijinx on him as far as he was concerned, and Omega decided he was NOT happy with it.

It was obvious which signal he should be following. He should have been up there with the fortress-like serpent in the sky, adding his powers and defending the monstrosity as it began its reign over the world. Not down here with two half-dead scraps clearly discarded by the main unit as useless.

But Omega, ever the veteran, had a sinking suspicion that he wasn't going to get to help the main unit like he wanted. He watched several ships aim themselves at the hoards of mavericks, sighed, and hoisted the two half-dead losers with him higher up the beach. Knowing his luck, the moment he got there the party would be over. A bird in hand was worth two in the bush as they say, and he currently had not one, but _two_ he'd spent no small amount of effort dragging out of danger. He could help the big unit later. Besides, the main unit was technically not ordering Omega to specifically help out it, and _only_ it, so it was a loophole he was going to use. For now, he decided to focus on the things he had actually managed to reach.

Besides, that thing was giant, intimidating, and powerful. If it couldn't manage its job done on its own, no amount of help from the God of Destruction was going to help it. Knowing his luck, it'd be busted by the time he got there anyways. He placed the pair on a relatively safe stretch of land and got to work.

First, injuries. The two had no small amount of energy weapon wounds and crushed limbs from the ruins he'd extricated them from. He did what he could to stabilize them. They remained unconscious, so he used what remained of the Dark Elf data on his systems, plus his own abilities, to search their programming for problems.

Pre-programmed death timers were what he found.

Cursing in every single dead language he knew, Omega raged, growled, gathered his wits, and used the Dark Elf's programming capabilities (that he'd copied from her just previous to his battle with Zero) to do what he could about the systems. A timer that counted down, and would cause death when it hit zero? How annoying! He cheekily sent the timer values as negative instead of positive so that the systems would continue counting into the negatives instead, deftly and permanently avoiding the "zero" count that would have spelled a systems shutdown. No wonder the main unit had discarded these ones! Weil couldn't use bodies that were going to die on him anyways!

True, he could have stopped the timer, or removed all the system shutdown protocols, but the less he messed with things the better. He and Weil had learned that the hard way the last time Weil had curiously decided to prod Omega's systems. Turned out that the maverick virus and Omega's anti-hacking protocols were more of a bitch than people realized. Thank fuck humans couldn't catch the virus, or Weil would never have deactivated the darn thing again. Weil may have been a better programmer than Omega's original creator, but said original creator had certainly had a few... cheeky tendencies.

Regardless. The whole affair of medical help and cautious reprogramming of his patients took nearly an hour, and by the time Omega had become convinced that the two were stabilized and that he might be able to put his attentions elsewhere, the main unit exploded. Omega stood dumbly looking on as the gigantic airship falling to the ocean below, fire belching from its sides and a pinkish airship, smaller and sleeker, speeding away from the scene.

Omega tried very hard not to scream in frustration. Shenanigans. That's the only word he could think of right now to describe the whole mess.

As it turned out, him rescuing the two idiots turned out to have been the best possible move. They would have no doubt died underwater, and Omega would have never reached the large airship before it had blown up anyways. He may have been the God of Destruction, but he was also completely useless when it came to flying. On top of that, Omega realized sadly as he tried to ping the downed ship with mental signals, it looked like the two individuals behind him were the last remnants of Weil, period. At least in the general area. No more big model W core signals came from the airship, just the two little fragments beeping back at him happily from their comatose hosts.

He hoped the two would at least be reasonable when they woke up.

...They weren't.


	2. Yeah they ain't happy

A/N: It was this chapter, right around the point where Omega's calling them scrubs, that I first realized that this fic was not the oneshot I had intended it to be. The swearing on my part is hilarious in hindsight.

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Omega cautiously watched as his two rescued charges jumped up from the ground, relatively recovered and with weapons at the ready as they stared him down. One was in white armour, a staff in the vague image of a broom. The other was much darker in colour, and had a large scythe.

The moment the two were up they began demanding to know what was going on. Who Omega was, where was some person called Albert, and anything else Omega knew. They quaintly tried threatening him with their odd weapons and scare him with their reputation, which he knew nothing about. Still, they held Weil's remnants, so Omega was forced to tell them all he knew of the situation. And when they found out a little, they wanted to know _everything_. Omega, unaccustomed to talking (much less explaining things), had to tell them his whole life story from conception to current point.

This was going to suck, he knew it.

Still, once it was all done, they responded to his own questions with their life's story. It was actually nice to have a master, or two now he supposed, that didn't completely override any questions of his with silence. He found out their origins, their inability to unmerge with the Model W, he learned what biometals actually were in the first place, and so on (Hah! Take that Zero... er, Model Z! What irony. The reploid who had claimed that the heart was everything had become nothing more than an amnesiac tool for a teenager). He learned that Albert was a colossal prick that he would have had to have a few words with if the others hadn't gotten there first. And he also, horrifyingly, found out that Pandora and Prometheus, his new masters, could be utter pricks in and of themselves.

"So..." it had started, "you have to obey us because we're Model Ws?" began the black male, Prometheus.

"The only ones left of your kind, apparently," Omega mentioned.

"Ah," started the white female, "then... if I told you to... stand on one leg...?"

Omega lifted a leg. He knew where this was going, as Weil had (and this had NEVER gone out of the room) done the exact same type of thing once he realized his reprogramming of Omega had worked.

"Oh my god. He did the thing. AHAHAHAAHA! Dance! Dance you brilliant motherfucker, dance!" Prometheus crowed triumphantly.

Omega groaned, but he did as told. It was the most half-assed dance anyone had every seen. He barely moved his arms, if anything. But fortunately, the siblings in front of him really didn't seem to give a shit. If they were decent people, Omega realized, they might have taken the lesson from Albert about controlling other people's lives against their will. About the inherent dangers and ethics of unnecessary cruelty and controlling someone's life. If they were decent people.

That had probably been decent people some century ago. At this point in time they were most certainly NOT decent people. For them, the tables had turned. They'd gone from being servants with leashes measurable in microns to being in complete and utter control of the most powerful reploid this side of existence. Their timers and artificial lifespans were no longer a problem. Their Model W fragments were barely conscious, much less truly sentient thanks to Albert's meddling. But they were Model Ws, and as far as Omega's programming was concerned, he had to obey Weil, and this was as close as he was going to get.

On the other hand, he wasn't the only one dancing right now. The grim reaper styled reploid was doing the most ridiculous and joyful hopping about. It was like a rabbit trying to summon Satan with carrots and ketchup, if Omega had to find an allegory for it. It was, in essence, moderately ridiculous and definitely hilarious.

Omega stopped his waving about, and if it was Weil commanding him right now he might have gotten scolded for stopping when he wasn't told to. But that was Weil, and these people didn't know the kinds of loopholes Omega could abuse. Nor cared, really. Pandora was spinning about with her brother while Omega just watched, the two clearly ecstatic about their newfound freedom.

"Yes! This is it! Our big break! Albert's destiny of destruction was more than he could possibly imagine!"

"Oh, what next? Hee hee? What are we going to do next?"

What sort of dark plots. What sort of widespread destruction? What sort of demonic mischief would Omega be beholden to at the hands of these maniacs?

The next second, the pair keeled over, groaning in pain and spitting blood. Omega sighed annoyingly.

What came next was, apparently, dragging the two somewhere to recover after they'd forgotten their life-threatening injuries. Scrubs, the pair of them.

He inspected their injuries, sourly complaining to himself the whole time. As it turned out, the two were going to be out for a while. The mild reprogramming, the very-NOT-mild injuries, and assorted other traumas and expended energies over the past few days had apparently drained them beyond what anyone could ever consider healthy.

He dragged the sorry sods as far inland as a four-hundred year old carrying two deadweight lumps could. Which was to say, not very far. They'd gone maybe half a mile into the treeline above the beach before Omega found some crumbled buildings and called it a day. His two new masters were promptly shoved into the safest looking room possible, although considering the wretched state of the place the fact that he'd found them a room at all was miraculous. It had fours walls, no ceiling, and a door approximately twenty metres in the who-the-fuck-cares direction. Glorious (as in, _not_ ).

Sadly, as ruins were wont, there were old security mechaniloids everywhere. Omega shoved a bunch of leaves and grass over the twins as camouflage and set to clear out anything potentially dangerous so that his charges could recover.

Two hours into the endeavor and close to returning back to the twins, he was glad he'd decided to patrol the area. A young male with gray hair and red cables coming from his back was gazing around the ruins worriedly. "Model A, can you sense if the last Model W signals are anywhere near?"

Omega ducked behind some shrubbery, dampening his own signal as best as he could while eavesdropping on the conversation. Had he not been so attuned to cyber-elves and other digital entities, he might have missed what came next. "Do I look like a radar to you? Not a clue! I mean I can sorta sense some mavericks in the area and there was one scary signal that kiiiinda just disappeared, but hey, that's gotta be good for us right? Just keep searching. The Guardians did say there had to be _something_ around here!"

Grey fidgeted, "Yeah, okay, but do you really think we should be out here alone? I mean-"

"Oh come off it Grey! We just beat Albert's face in! Ashe has gotta help with the cleanup around Hunter's Camp and the Guardians have already started with everything else, so... just shush and go! We'll be fiiiine. What could possibly _-! LOOK OUT GREY_!"

Omega's energies flared and before either Grey or Model A could react a Very Not Friendly monster of a reploid was raining hellfire and lasers down on their heads. Omega had heard enough from the conversation to realize who the two were, especially after Pandora and Prometheus's descriptions earlier, and he was not about to let this opportunity go to waste.

Grey was no slouch of an opponent. But despite having decent long range capabilities and exceptional adaptability with his ability to transform, he had nothing against the oppressive onslaught Omega could unleash. All of Grey's larger forms were far too easy of a target, his smaller forms didn't have the firepower, and his signature homing shot was just too slow to charge up within range of Omega. Quite frankly after the first ten seconds, Grey quickly realized that being anywhere near the mysterious maverick attacking him was a very poor idea. But it was ten seconds too late to realize this, especially when ambushed. Having just come off a fight with Albert only a few hours prior, he was but a few drops of water being tossed uselessly onto the raging inferno that was the devil reploid.

It was no competition. Omega had the Model A Mega Man exactly where he wanted him. The poor boy and his biometal had gotten overconfident. He'd not been paying attention; the ease to which the ambush had been pulled off attested to that. Without Ashe, Vent, Aile, or even _anyone_ else to aide him, he'd ended up against a fight he'd lost before it even started. No backup, no escape plan, not even a navigator to tell others that he was in trouble, nothing. It was the end of Model A.

Or at least, it would have been, had Pandora and Prometheus's biometals not started screaming for help.


	3. Just let me kill it please

Omega balked, his gaze switching between the bleeding Model A Mega Man before him, Grey, and some walls that separated him and his charges, Pandora and Prometheus. Their primordially-minded biometals frantically called for his aid in the middle of his fight with the transforming tween.

God fucking damn it all. Was he nothing more than a _babysitter_ now?

He screamed in frustration, because he'd been demanded _right now_ and even taking ten seconds to dispatch the Mega Man he'd just spent who-knows-how-long thrashing was too long by his system's standards. Grey yelped and jumped in fear and confusion as the raging God of Destruction blasted through a nearby wall, and another behind it, reacting immediately to the distress signals broadcast by Model W, and before him or the odd mavericks apparently cornering Pandora and Prometheus knew, there was a very pissed-off old man currently murdering the ever-loving shit out of the lot of them.

Grey, confused more than anything, cautiously leaned in to look after the screeching devil reploid and poked his head past the rubble,watching the carnage with the most adorably horrified expression ever. Pandora and Prometheus weren't exactly immune to the confusion, having just awoken from an unconscious state and having apparently forgotten that Omega was a now A Thing. They just kind of stared at each other, then at the maverick's fresh corpses, and Omega, then at each other again, before finally catching Grey's eye.

"Oh. You're... here too? Huh."

They then looked to Omega.

"Shit. You weren't a dream, were you?"

Omega dropped the corpse of the last of the poor, dead mavericks and absolutely glared at the siblings (despite the fact that they were his masters and he should be beholden and respectful to them). He couldn't help a twinge of malicious pleasure at the way they spooked at his gaze alone.

"IF you will EXCUSE me..." Omega growled, turning back to his previous business.

Model A balked, "Uh oh!"

Grey realized his folly and scattered. Omega howled, leaped over and around the fallen buildings surrounding the group, and pounced on the poor boy anyways. Somewhere in the mess of trying to grab and/or murder the little literal bastard, the Model A Mega Man managed to turn himself around completely and slip past Omega back towards the siblings. He tackled the boy to the ground, fully intent on finishing the legacy of Albert then and there, but was yet again stopped in his tracks.

"Whoa! Hey! Hold on a moment!"

Omega bared his fangs at Prometheus's command, shooting his hand down to grab the megamerged boy beneath him by the throat. Grey wisely froze. "What!?"

Prometheus seemed kind of stunned at his own audacity, still completely baffled from the current situation and trying to work things out. Pandora, acting as an audience up until now, spoke up. "...Hostage... if you kill him... we can't-"

"Use him as a hostage, I get it! Fine." Omega then proceeded to pick up Grey by the throat and drag him to the Model W Mega Men, dropping the boy at their feet like something between a sacrifice and offal. Grey, stunned, just curled up like a submissive dog, wide eyed and whimpering on his back. He looked upwards at Pandora and Prometheus, and the trio just sort of stared at each other while the almighty crimson destroyer huffed and shoved himself in a corner to pout, cheated of his kill.

The staring continued. Apparently no one knew what to make of the situation.

"Uh... hi? I'm glad you're not dead?"

Grey really was just a puppy Omega thought, snorting. First thing he did was greet his captors like that? Useless. If people like him were the world's heroes, then goddamn the world needed to grow a pair. It's not Like Weil's warmongering had kicked the metaphorical world in the balls _that_ hard, had they? Wait. This was Weil he was thinking about. Yeaaaah. Ok, the world could be a little bitch after that, he mused with dark humour.

The conversation continued despite Omega's musings to himself. Prometheus blinked, surprised by Grey's greeting. He cocked his head, and then began grinning insanely. "Oh. Oh I am very much glad I'm not dead too!"

Grey then realized that maybe trying to appeal to Pandora and Prometheus's good side was maybe not the best of plans, because quite frankly he wasn't really sure they had one any more. Wasn't the last thing he'd heard them say something about destroying the world Albert made? Oh yeah. He quailed as Prometheus stood, bearing his scythe triumphantly.

Next second Prometheus threw up blood and fell to the ground. Pandora gasped. Omega just rolled his eyes, grumbled, and trotted over to the pair. Grey and Pandora could really only watch in shock as Omega flipped Prometheus over by his headgear, grinning caustically at Prometheus's pained protests.

"You still need medical attention. You _and_ your sister. I am at your command, but I would suggest prioritizing your recovery." He gazed over sternly at the female Mega Man, and all in attendance managed to spot the beginnings of blood trailing down from Pandora's nose. The quiet maverick was just as surprised as the rest of them. Omega snorted in disdain, "Seeing as you've decided to keep this potential threat as a hostage rather than neutralizing him, I suggest you use him." Omega's red eyes bore holes into Grey's timid figure, and the poor child gulped.

"I, uh, I-I mean... Uhm. Model A? Any way we could call the Guardians?"

Omega turned to Prometheus, doing what he could to help the squirming, coughing man who looked rather put out at the moment. Omega gave a cheeky grin, ignoring the planning Pandora and Grey had started behind him. The red reploid was endlessly amused by the fact that every time Prometheus tried to talk, he just ended up coughing blood. "Serves you right for making me dance earlier," Omega taunted under his breath.

Prometheus just gave him a dirty look, clearly not amused at the backtalk. It was then that Omega realized he was probably going to have a LOT of fun at the sibling's expense if they didn't smarten up about Omega's loopholes soon. Sure, he had to obey them. But if they didn't order him NOT to do things...!

Well. That would be catastrophically fun indeed.


	4. I think I'm scared of pink now

When Grey first called in to the Guardians, it was the Model ZX user, Aile, who answered. It started out sweet enough. She asked if he was ok, he answered about being a little beat up, she asked him about the Model W signals and Grey told her happily about Pandora and Prometheus still being alive... and then Omega got fed up and shoved his sword less then an inch from Grey's face and told him to get on with it. Aile was decidedly less enthused about the apparent hostage situation, and Omega could almost _feel_ the motherly hatred aimed at him for _daring_ to threaten a charge of hers. The red reploid could give less of a fuck really, and ordered her to get his own charges some medical attention, stat, or Grey was coming back to her in halves. Quarters if he felt like it.

The leader of the Guardians needed no second bidding. Less than a minute later he could hear an airship in the distance, and had to admit to some respect when a severely damaged, but nonetheless sturdy looking airship flew overhead. A shape plummeted from above, and before anyone knew it the other Model ZX Mega Man, Vent, was glaring at the group from atop a lump of ruins. He especially frowned at Omega, who had taken his sword out and placed it under Grey's neck the moment he'd seen the potential threat.

"I'm just here to make sure no funny business goes on," Vent growled. He was on high alert, and also high temper. If it had been possible, his long hair would have been raised like a cat's hackles. As it was, there was clear tension in his posture. He nodded towards the Model W duo, "Now let's get those two into medical."

Omega let him approach. If Vent's similarity to Zero (damnable Zero!) was any indication, he feared no trickery. All the same, he held grimly onto Grey's arm, not giving the boy an inch. The ship landed as best it could nearby, and some medical staff nervously approached. Vent and Omega didn't dare take eyes off one another and the staff knew it was dangerous. The moment Pandora and Prometheus were safely on some stretchers (Prometheus complaining as much as possible despite profusely spitting blood), Omega followed closely behind them. Aile appeared, watching every movement from her position inside the door to the ship's interior. She was guarding it, and the soldiers inside no doubt. It was a very high-strung situation. As much as Omega hated to admit it, he needed everyone to relax a little lest he risk a mistake in his charges' treatment.

When all were aboard the ship, he jostled Grey a bit. The boy gave him rapt attention (something about the sword nearby may have helped with that). "You. Grey was it?" Omega shoved him back between himself and Vent. "Get lost."

Grey seemed a little taken aback. "Uh? You're just letting me go?"

Pandora, of all people, seemed to grasp the situation all too well and spoke up, "Our guardian... If you attempt to harm us... is inside your ship. One hostage like yourself... is nothing... when we could cause irreparable harm... to anyone on board."

It was a threat. Hurt us, and there's no way you could stop Omega from killing most of your force in a heartbeat. It was a threat they all knew too well. Fights between Mega Men tended to cause some serious collateral damage after all, and Omega had more than proved himself able to handle Grey, much less anyone else. It was something of a bluff too. No one could ignore the fact that the threat was coming from someone currently strapped to a medical stretcher and bleeding. Badly. Omega was just starting to see blood inside her mouth that hadn't come from the sudden nosebleed earlier.

He tried to hide his own concern, mainly because his programming was screaming at him to help out the Model W users. He was no medic though. The best he could do was watch over them in the medical bay. "Pandora, Prometheus. Focus on recovering. I will ensure that they do not try anything while you are unconscious."

The glare he received from Prometheus told him very well that the Grim Reaper had no intention of letting himself become vulnerable. Pandora also tensed, glancing around furtively at the medics on standby. "We will not fall asleep."

Omega just snorted. "Suit yourselves."

The God of Destruction fell silent, keeping pace as his charges kept a wary eye on the medics leading them to the medical wing of the ship. In the background, Omega couldn't help but notice that both Model ZX Mega Men had watched the exchange with interest, and even some understanding. Whatever. As long as the Grim Reaper and the Witch were given medical attention, he couldn't give less of a shit what the others thought about all this. He missed Vent slipping away elsewhere, curiosity and a strange and hidden knowledge glinting in his eyes.

In the meantime, Omega had other concerns. The medics had clearly figured out that they need not fear harm as long as they did their jobs, because Pandora and Prometheus definitely needed their help and Omega couldn't lay a finger on them if he wanted their cooperation. After all, he was clearly concerned with the lives of the Model Ws, and if Omega wanted to keep his charges safe, he had to keep the people treating his charges safe. As in, not hurt them himself. So in short order the medical staff had gone from being afraid to fully taking advantage of his presence.

Omega would have been a lot more offended if it wasn't so bloody necessary.

The twins needed to be sedated. That was for sure. Even hooked up to machines, having fluid pumped in and repair nanites injected, surgery was needed. A quick scan had apparently shown that there was a lot of shrapnel stuck in the pair, bones were cracked or displaced here and there, and in general the two were a wreck. Of course, being the paranoid prisses that they were, they were having none of it. Pandora harshly objected to the sedatives, claiming that her and her brother would rather shoulder the pain than be put under. In one light, Omega felt that their perspective was fair. There was nothing wrong with being less than comfortable with falling unconscious under the eyes of an enemy. Fearing unknown doctors? That was more than understandable.

On the other hand, they were being stupid. It was going to impede their recovery severely if they didn't get some sedation, and more importantly, some sleep. The red reploid growled internally at having to play diplomat yet again.

"You need sedatives or you're going to react and twitch every time the scalpel goes in. They are trying to help you recover. Unnecessary nerve reactions will only cause more harm than help."

Prometheus glared yet again, but was obviously in pain by his gritted teeth and his fingers putting dents in the medical table he was on. Pandora started to object, sitting up, but then it was her turn to start spitting blood. Omega growled out loud this time. This was getting him nowhere!

"I am programmed to obey Weil, and protect him. You share his Genetic information, therefore I have to protect _you_. If I must protect you from your own idiocy, so be it!"

Needless to say the pair weren't happy when he trotted over Pandora and slammed her back down onto the table. "Sedatives. NOW."

The doctors quite happily complied. Prometheus looked like he wanted to get up and rip Omega a new one but unfortunately for him his body just wasn't listening to him. Some sneaky woman with long purple hair had taken advantage of his distraction to stab a needle into him and that was that. Not at all comfortable, but it did the job.

Omega did have to hand it to the crew. They were capable combat medics. No amount of crazy bull from the two most feared Mega Men in the world had thrown them off their duties.

With little else to do now, Omega sauntered to a corner and watched the proceedings like a hawk. He wasn't too pleased about the current situation. Trying to guard two badly injured Mega Men in enemy territory was bad enough as it was. It was fortunate that said enemies were moral goody two-shoes because heavens forbid they actually tried to pull something. Omega pretended to have all the cards, but everyone with half a brain could realize that he was in a very desperate situation himself. He was in unfamiliar territory, outnumbered, and on an escort mission to boot.

Sometimes life just really sucked.

Before he knew it the two Model W Mega Men were shunted off to a side room to recover. A single door provided privacy, but a medical facility was a medical facility and the doctors were always nearby, peering through the window or coming in to check vitals. The ZX Mega Men were also nearby. About halfway through the surgery he had seen one pop their nose in and get a briefing by the head nurse. Glances were exchanged his way too, but Omega sensed no ill will. Just caution.

He couldn't really blame them for that.

Day turned to evening, and then night. Throughout the long hours the pattern of peekaboos from the ZX siblings continued, just as watchful of the twins as he was. Every once in a while one of the Guardian leaders would patrol the area, on guard for trouble. Even Grey and another silver-haired girl showed up. Ashe, presumed Omega. Again, there was clear caution in their gazes, but no open animosity. If anything, they seemed more curious and concerned about Pandora and Prometheus' condition. Grey even made to go to the bedside of the pair once, former scuffle with Omega clearly forgotten. A snarl and a jerk of movement from Omega, and Grey got the message very clearly about getting too close. He backed off. The rest of the night passed uneventfully.

Morning came. The tension that had slowly petered throughout the night finally dissipated when Pandora and Prometheus woke up. Prometheus groaned, clearly in no mood to move, and Pandora shoved a pillow over her face to guard against morning's rays. That's when Prometheus' mind finally caught up, and he looked over confused at Omega.

"Er. Where are we?"

Guardian HQ apparently," Omega answered dutifully. "We are in the medical bay. Do try to stay still, you are still recovering," cautioned the devil reploid, Prometheus guiltily leaning back from where he'd looked ready to jump into action.

A knock sounded at the door. Omega hadn't the chance to answer when Vent and a female wearing pink slowly entered as politely as possible. Omega couldn't help the sudden feeling of recognition, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't place why he felt he knew her.

"Ah, the enigmatic leader of the Guardians... Prairie. It is... most interesting to see you..." Pandora started. Vent and Prairie stood still as Pandora tried to sit up, but there was some obvious wincing on her end.

"Pandora. Can't say I'm pleased to see you," spat the blonde female. There was some clear history here, Omega realized, but the animosity from whatever history was between the group didn't help his charges out in the slightest. He decided to shown some force. He stepped into the middle of the room, placing himself between both pairs of people, and simply stood his ground wordlessly. Nothing really needed to be said when you were the God of Destruction. Just stand in the middle of the room and people would know you meant business.

He was mildly surprised when the Guardians before him showed no fear. In fact, Prairie stepped forwards. "It's been a very long time. Omega... was your name, wasn't it?"

He saw familiarity and pain in her eyes, but... not for him. It was odd. "You know my name? I don't remember giving it."

"I was with the Resistance. You may not remember me." She looked around the group, "It does not leave this room, but... my old name, I was known as Allouette." And with this, she stared down Omega.

Omega stared right back. "I don't recall you. You must not have been that important."

Prairie frowned, "So much like Zero, but so lacking in comparison." There was sadness in her voice. True regret.

It stung Omega. It grated his pride. Being compared to Zero, and coming up lacking... It angered and humiliated him on so many levels. Especially since he'd thought those thoughts already to himself so many times. And Prairie didn't seem to even acknowledge him. No, all tones in her voice were from her thoughts of Zero. He was nothing in her eyes.

He tensed, and she caught onto her mistake. Vent also stiffened, but Omega didn't dare act on his anger. His eyes blazed however, and bore into Prairie's. "I'm not Zero. I'm who Zero should have been been. And maybe I'm not to your liking, but at least I'm still _here_."

It was Prairie's turn to be hurt. But she took the wound with grace. "Indeed, Omega. You are still here."

"And he is our Guardian," spoke Pandora, her voice firm, "he obeys our whims. You... hold no power here... not even in your own ship... as long as he is with us."

"And that's where you're wrong," snorted Vent. Both Pandora and Prometheus gritted their teeth in response, but Prairie took the floor.

"Omega just so happened to let slip that he must protect you, above all else. And you just so happen to be damaged and in need of our help," she started, "which means that in turn, Omega is dependent on us to treat you. I don't imagine you're keen on running off and begging _Legion_ for help any time soon." She grimaced along with the injured siblings. That was, apparently, a shared regret. "In an ideal world the lot of us could get along and help each other recover from what happened. But an ideal world wouldn't have led us to where we are. You two will be allowed to recover in peace. Legion doesn't know everything that happens on this ship, and I don't intend to start tattling now. But in the meantime, I will have your cooperation." A pointed look at Omega told the trio of mavericks all they needed to know about who held the cards here. And it wasn't them. The Guardians may have been a force for good, but it was only their good will that was leaving the three mavericks alive right now.

"Are you threatening us?" Omega warned anyways. He wasn't about to let the Guardians do what they will.

"Not a threat. A warning," she finished, "As much as I would wish that we could get along, I know that's not likely to happen right away. So you three can back off on any of your own threats, and we'll pretend that when Legion comes calling and asking us what our findings were, we found nothing to report."

At this, Prairie turned and stared directly at Omega, "I know all of you have been forced into this situation, but I'm not about to forget what you've all done." She turned to Pandora and Prometheus, "Giro isn't here because of you," she started, voice cracking, before turning back to Omega, "and billions more aren't here because of _you_. But remember. You lost. You all did. And we have the numbers to ensure another failure on your part if you so much as _squint_ out of line." And with that she turned around and stomped from the room, her posture as sharp as her retort. Vent gave them all a glare and left as well.

Well. That explained some of the history, Omega mused. The murder of Giro... It seemed there were still some very sore egos over that. All in the room were silent. Then, Prometheus piped up mournfully.

"Man, we just got _told_."

Pandora and Omega whined in agreement. There was definitely no arguing that!


	5. Plotholes er, a whole lot of plot

The next two days with the Model W duo were little more than boring tension. Severely damaged as they were, bed rest was the most they could manage. Once they'd gotten past their initial apprehension about being under Guardian supervision, the two had no problem zonking out all day to recover. A much needed break for them, Omega thought honestly. The Guardians, medics or otherwise, would check up on the recovering pair regularly, playing friendly enough with the siblings and trying to pry out a conversation, but eyeing Omega with all due paranoia. He was never left out of sight. And really, who could blame them? He'd managed to overpower Grey and that was no small feat. But with Omega restrained by pre-programmed loyalty, as long as they did nothing to harm his charges, he seemed all too willing to sit in a corner and sulk. Especially after Prairie's admonishment earlier. Omega wasn't as unpredictable as one would think, given his devil reploid moniker.

If anything, it was Pandora and Prometheus that were the biggest wild cards. No one really knew if they were going to smarten up, or just go maverick again once they got up on their feet properly. Yet despite the situation, the Guardians seemed distracted. As if something else was going on. This was a potentially bad move as far as Omega was concerned. If the Guardians had any smarts, the immediate plan should have been to appease his charges as much as possible. Pandora and Prometheus (and him by default) could be possible allies for any scheme, and definitely wouldn't be desirable as enemies. Day two of recovery, and apart from waking up with the usual sly glint in their eyes, the two Model W users remained bed-bound overall.

Day three scrapped any possible plans.

Omega never really knew or cared what the world government was up to, or who ruled it. But that opinion was forced to change when a rush of medics brought a tall blonde man into the medical bay, screaming blue bloody murder and cursing a man by the name of Thomas with all his heart.

"Damn Thomas! That ruinous fool! First Albert, and then him!?"

"Master Mikhail, you are going to give yourself a heart attack."

"Thomas literally back-stabbed me through the heart on my last body, _it is a little late for that_!"

Omega, who had gone to the door to observe the commotion, simply frowned in confusion. Clearly something important was going on, but he was missing many pieces of the puzzle. Pandora and Prometheus, now strong enough to walk, came to the door in curiosity. Omega made some room for them and they all opened the door, leaning out and watching the chaos.

Whomever the tall blonde was, they seemed far more offended than actually hurt. Still, he was tottering around and unstable, and nurses were around him at every step. The man was still cursing up a storm, causing even the Model W duo to raise their brows.

"Master Mikhail? That doesn't look like him," Prometheus grumbled.

Pandora shot back a conspiratorial retort, "He said he had a... previous body. He may... have had a spare... like Albert."

"Asshole maneuver right there, that's for sure."

"And we care about this why?" Omega snapped at the pair, not at all appreciative of that fact that they were literally leaning on him to get a better look out the door.

"Good heavens, is that who I think it is?!" Mikhails voice shot out through the medical bay, absolute surprise and shock on his features. Any sort of complaining or conspiring against that 'Thomas' person fell short with the blonde man's slack-jawed appraisal of the Model W duo, currently leaning out of their room and spying like naughty children.

"You bet your ass it is!" Prometheus crowed, "you Legion bastards are going to have to try a little harder next time to kill us! Although if I've overheard right you're right on Albert's level of scheming! Spare bodies, pah! Coward!" The Grim reaper leaned out even further, snarling and gesturing wildly to show his anger. Unfortunately Omega was caught off guard by the maneuver and became unbalanced. Before anyone knew it, the trio had fallen right over. Omega managed to catch himself on the doorway, but Pandora and Prometheus went right down onto the ground in a heap. The witch had tried to grab something during the fall though, and Omega had been _very_ hard put to avoid yelping out when she'd grabbed his hair and was now, in fact, tangled in it. Ow.

The poor medics didn't really seem to know how to process the scene that had just befallen their eyes (literally), but to his credit, the blonde Master of Legion just gave a disgruntled snort at the Model W users wincing on the floor. "Scheming? I'll have you know I am nothing like Albert. My scheming isn't evil, thank-you-very-much!"

He drew himself to his full height, as if preparing a retort, when the Guardian leaders all blundered into the room. Aile, Vent, and Prairie all stopped dead when they saw what was going on, and sort of just looked between the two groups. Even Prairie seemed rather nonplussed, but gathered herself quickly. "Ah... ah. Master Mikhail. I must admit your arrival was a bit... unexpected?"

"Might as well just call me 'Master' now, I do believe Thomas has betrayed me and run off just Albert did," replied the blonde sourly. His long hair shook as he growled and shook his head, "I had to rely on a backup body to get out of that mess in one piece, and even now I can tell my memory's a little off." He reared up, taking on a far more regal posture as he regained his composure, a surprisingly youthful face greeting the onlookers compared to his usual one (which Omega knew nothing of, of course). "I do remember something about you having reached the end of your lifespan, Prairie. I take it you've, ah, circumvented a few rules there."

Prairie seemed rather sheepish, Aile taking up the slack in the conversation, "Official story is that she passed away a year ago. But none of us could... well... We couldn't stand to see her go. Even if it did technically make us maverick."

Vent scratched his head in admonishment, but Mikhail just laughed at the ZX pair, "I would be a hypocrite to say she shouldn't live a long life! She's done more good than I, to be fair. Just be a bit more careful about keeping her under wraps. But for now I agree; the official story is that she's deceased." And here, the world governor gave Pandora and Prometheus a concerned look. "As are they, apparently. Now this, I am going to have to question severely. But, perhaps at another time. It's strange of me to be saying it, but we have some far more concerning news to deal with right now." And here, he turned to the Guardians and explained everything.

"Thomas betrayed me, as you may have guessed by now. He's apparently taken control of Siarnaq, Atlas, Aeolus, and Thetis, and has also managed to get his hands on some sort of Model W coding. He's trying to use it to take control of many satellites and other orbital bodies around the planet, including many of the orbital space cannons left over from the Elf Wars." He had to stop here when his audience of Guardians gasped.

"Orbital space cannons?"

"What!?"

"I thought many of those were decommissioned," Prairie shot abruptly. Everyone's gazes turned to her, then back to Mikhail when he replied.

"I they were, too. But not all of them apparently," the Master frowned, "and he's planning to... _reset_ the world. I don't know what this means. Ah! But before I forget! It's most important!" The old politician rustled through some hidden pockets. What he brought out set Omega's hackles up. It was Model Z. Cracked, and obviously in some sort of sleep mode, for the eyes were dim and the biometal itself did not float as it usually would have. "I couldn't stop Thomas from damaging him, but... maybe there's something you could do?"

"Model Z!"

The conversation continued, mostly because no one knew how Thomas had managed to pull this ploy so quickly or what they were going to do about it. At least, no one who knew who spoke op. Omega discretely gained Pandora and Prometheus' attention, and they all retreated back into their room and closed the door with a click.

Omega growled. "That biometal...!"

"Damaged. Looks like its in a power saver mode. No need to be bothered," Prometheus started callously. Then his demeanor changed."The beans. Spill them. You look like you know something," Prometheus asked. _Asked_ , not demanded, Omega noted with pleased surprised. He was more than happy to divulge.

"What they're discussing sounds a lot like the ultimate plan my former master, Weil, had," he began. The Model W duo listened intently, "It was called Operation Ragnarok. It was a multi-stage operation. First, devise a program that could connect and control orbital bodies. Lord Weil was exiled for 200 years from society, and used that time to construct a fool-proof program to hack and convert space cannons, satellites, and so on to his needs. Next, distract the opponent with numbers. Weil intended to acquire an army and use that to quash any resistance. My former master intended to rule the world but had no illusions that he'd manage it without some form of resistance showing up. If such resistance were to occur, he would attempt to destroy it with whatever armies he'd gained control of or built in his march to world control. The third stage of his plan was to build and launch his own orbital space cannon, which I believe he intended to call Ragnarok, to broadcast the program to other space bodies as well as act as an immediate form of suppression to any who would challenge him."

Omega took a breath before continuing to explain, "Sadly I am unaware as to the progression and success of Operation Ragnarok. As Weil's second in command and eventual avenger should anything have gone wrong, I should have been at the head of his armies suppressing any resistance. Sadly, during the army-building stage of the operation, I... became rather inconvenienced. Left for dead, really. Even Weil, the man whose soul resides within Model W, within you, had no idea I remained alive." He looked to the side subconsciously, "sometimes I didn't even know I had myself..." Omega shook his head, getting back to the topic at hand, "But judging by the current events, Operation Ragnarok must have progressed to the final stages in my absence. This could prove problematic for us if the man abusing Weil's Ragnarok program is not Weil himself.

"Which he isn't. Which I'm glad for," Pandora said firmly. "Model W is bad enough. I feel that Weil would be a bad ally for us," she said to Prometheus.

Prometheus, for his part, gritted his teeth. "Yeah. Seems as bad as Albert. Worse maybe. Speaking of Weil," Prometheus frowned, "Omega. Any other programming we should know about that he left in you? You're no good to us if you're gonna be forced to betray us at some point. Tell us your programming!"

Omega was a bit taken aback by this. But he understood. "Very well. I am Omega. Built by Wily in 20xx, tampered with by Dr. Cain in 21xx, and later refined by Weil late 21xx. My Primary programming is to destroy. Initially I had secondary programming to spread a virus to make other robots and reploids act maverick; although this feature helped result in the Maverick wars, it was made defunct as of my refinement by Weil. After this refinement, my primary objective was to serve and protect Weil, even if it cost me my own life. My secondary programming is now as thus; If Weil is killed, my primary objective again becomes destruction. All humans and reploids are to be destroyed. Everything is to be destroyed." Omega stopped here, humming, "However, my programming here is having some issues. I acknowledge that Weil appears to be dead. And yet his soul clearly resonates from Model W. I cannot destroy all life as that would undoubtedly result in the destruction of Model W. Who is Weil. Who I must protect. So instead..." Omega became consternated, thinking aloud, "I must... obey Model W. Because Model W is Weil? Because... Ah. My programming is unclear. I suppose this is a reason why I have sentience. Issues like this would become a horrible logic loophole for my programming otherwise." Omega finished his explanation.

"...So you're like, some really primitive reploid," Prometheus finished, slightly in awe. "Are you even a reploid? Being forced to follow your programming like that seems a bit... well..."

"I could be described as primitive in reploid terms, I suppose. Primordial. Whichever you prefer."

"The real question..." Pandora cut in, "becomes... what does this mean. For us now?"

"It means that I could have a horrible conflict of interest if Thomas is indeed using Weil's programming to restart operation Ragnarok under his control. Especially if he's using a Model W as a vector to do it," Omega explained. He wasn't familiar with long conversations like this, but he supposed having to spill his guts and explain everything to Pandora and Prometheus the first time they'd met had trained him a bit. "Or even worse for you, if Weil himself is assisting Thomas. Or, if Thomas has managed to program himself as having seniority over Weil or Model W, I may be forced by seniority programming to obey Thomas regardless. Thankfully Weil left a loophole that I do not actually need to actively seek out orders. Well. He may have at one point, but I found that I could annoy him. Er. He found that to be annoying when I realized how often I may... require input." Omega smirked and acted a little sheepish after having let that slip. He'd worked damn hard and endured quite a bit of flak to have Weil give him that loophole. He wasn't going to lose it now!

"To summarize I suppose. If Thomas is Using Model W to control the programming for Operation Ragnarok, it may cause a problem in my programming over whether to obey either him or you. If Weil is assisting him directly, I will automatically have to default to obeying Weil. However, as it stands, I do not actually have to actively seek out Weil to take orders from him. Or even know if he's alive or not, I suppose. So for you, the best thing would be to avoid Thomas' machinations and the potential to come face to face with Weil. Because then, I may not have to obey you any more if my programming thinks he would be a better candidate."

And as much as Omega was curious to find out about who this Thomas person was, he wasn't curious enough to chance the possibility of being forced to obey Weil again. Pandora and Prometheus were people who he thought he could get along with. They didn't know how to stop him using loopholes, or maybe didn't even care. And they respected, even feared him a little. That, he felt, was good enough for him.

One their end, Pandora and Prometheus were scheming. "Shit. So what do we do now?"

"We need to get away, I think," Pandora began, "and maybe... sabotage Thomas as much as possible. He is a threat to us... but... we cannot face him directly."

"You probably could if you wanted to" Omega said frankly.

Prometheus snorted, "And leave you by yourself? Fuck that. You're our new bodyguard! And, uh... well you did beat Model A. You're probably pretty tough in battle. Like hell we're gonna pass up the opportunity to have you fight for us!"

Pandora hummed, "So... the plan... I say we sabotage Thomas... perhaps we can offer the Guardians help... and when they go to face Thomas, we... make a getaway... retreat somewhere safe... and adapt our plans to whatever happens next."

"Good plan. Except, uh..." Prometheus frowned, "somewhere safe. I can't really think of any place that's really gonna be super safe if Thomas wins and starts blasting the planet with space cannons."

And this is where Omega squirmed, because he damn well knew of a place. He'd rather not go back, but... Well, he'd rather not be hit with space cannons either. They tended to hurt a little. "I know a place. I might need help finding the general region, but I believe there was a forest currently experiencing a gravitational anomaly nearby-"

"Area A."

"Yup. Area A."

The siblings nodded to each other before turning back to Omega. "So. Area A. After we beat some shit up and help wreck Thomas's plans, we get going to Area A, ditch the Guardians by the way 'cause I don't think they'll like us doing this, and you lead us to a safe hideaway. Good! This is a plan. Usually we were the pawns in any plans we were involved in, it's nice to have the cards for once," Prometheus grinned.

Omega blinked. "So."

"So." Pandora smiled. "We go... help the Guardians for now?"

"And high tail it afterwards!" Crowed the Grim reaper.

And with that, the plan was set.


	6. Remember that famous line? It's evil now

Scheming complete, the trio of mavericks poked their heads back out of the room to see what progress had been made by the Guardians on their counterattack plans. Prairie, Aile and Mikhail were well into their discussion, pondering over details of Thomas' plan to reset the world. Vent and Ashe were nowhere to be seen, and Grey was just standing around looking confused. Someone had apparently taken Model Z to repairs (probably Vent), as the biometal was also gone from sight. All the better really, Omega scowled.

Seeing as Grey wasn't doing much, Prometheus barged up to him without a shred of hesitation. "So hot shot, what're those dolts up to?" He indicated towards the Guardians and Master of Legions. Mikhail, who was currently being harried by a medic, shot back a retort.

"A mess. That's what we're up to!"

"Ashe and Vent went off to help rally the Hunters and Mikhail is trying to figure out if evacuations are necessary and, if so, where we're gonna put everyone," Grey answered, completely ignoring Mikhail's initial input.

"Anywhere the space cannons can't hit, obviously," Prometheus suggested cheekily. Pandora stifled a giggle at Grey's put-out look.

"As we were discussing earlier," cut in Prairie, her posture regal as ever, "there's not many places a space cannon can't blast into oblivion." Her eyes brooked no mischief as they glared at the Model W Mega Men. She grimaced, "This space cannon issue is bringing up bad memories for me...but regardless. The Guardians have always done their best to prepare for the worst. Just..." and here she faltered, "there's just no way we could have prepared for this."

"And this is where I come in," Mikhail answered. He adjusted himself, half smiling and half frowning. "As much as I hate to admit it, none of the Sage Trinity were without their scheming. We were world leaders. All of us had our own secrets and none of us begrudged the others for it." He sighed sadly, "But Albert's secrets were far darker than I could have possibly imagined. And to have Thomas defect so soon after-! The one man I thought I could trust above all!"

Aile patted his arm as he gripped his fists. "Hey. We've got you. We'll get justice done one way or another."

"Justice can wait until after we've saved as many as we can," Mikhail responded, breaking from his moment of distraction, "like I mentioned, I wasn't free from scheming. Under my friend's... former friend's noses, I prepared a moon base. I originally intended to keep it as a secret library of all genetic data and other historical information. I even put up another spare body up there. After the losses incurred during the fall of Neo Arcadia, and even further back... for better or for worse, I wanted to save history as it was as best as I could, not how it was written."

"Is there something we're not privy to?" Stepping into the room came Vent and Ashe, the Model ZX speaking now, "I'm afraid I'm not a history buff. You might have to let me in on a few things."

Mikhail grinned, "I have my correspondence with Prairie to help with much of my knowledge. May I?" he asked, facing Prairie.

"You are best to tell it" she replied.

"Thank you. Well. To make it quick, long ago there was a horrible war. Even I know little about the details. I believe it was called the Elf Wars, and was instigated by a man named Weil. During this war, many historical truths and documents were lost, and when Weil was eventually defeated, he was exiled. All knowledge of him was destroyed by the government at the time, Neo Arcadia, in an effort to undue his efforts and erase his legacy. As you can imagine by the tone of my tale, it didn't work. He came back, took control of Neo Arcadia, and caused such havoc that even now we're still recovering." He made as if to finish, but Prairie cut him off.

"What I left out when we first shared the resistance's... well, the original Guardians' data files," she started, "was that we are certain Weil didn't truly die. Vent and Aile are privy, but the rest of you should know. Weil, that horrible man that nearly ended the world, became what we know today to be the Model W. His mind may not have been intact, but his soul resides... resided," and here she sighed in relief, "as the core of Model W."

"Which you blew up to hell and back if I'm not mistaken," Omega stated simply. Prairie startled, having forgotten his presence. That kind of oversight could have been a fatal mistake. Omega smirked inwardly, even if he was as emotionless as ever on the outside, "I am programmed to serve and protect Weil. This programming does extend to Model W, to a degree."

This got a few grimaces and tense postures from the menagerie around him. Ashe snarled, "So wait... This ancient asshole that caused all of us so much grief! You work for him!?"

"I was indeed under the understanding that Weil programmed you to be loyal to him," Prairie growled, "I wonder if you still feel the need to avenge him." She straightened, and her Guardians moved protectively beside her.

Omega snorted, "There's a time and a place for revenge, and now's not it. There's a bunch of space cannons aimed down at us all if you've already forgotten."

"As much as we... don't want to be bothered... With all of you. We're all in a... spot... if the cannons fire." Pandora summed up. She stepped forwards, her proximity to her new protector giving her courage despite being outnumbered. "Thomas is an obstacle... to us... as much as you. But... we are still weakened from... from..." She snarled, composing herself, "From Albert. And... the Ouroboros incident. Prometheus and I... could help distract the elemental... Mega Men... but we are unsure... of Thomas himself..."

Prometheus gave a cocky grin, "Those elemental Mega Men are fools. Leave them to us, and you guys could go deal with Thomas and his machinations. We only just got our freedom and we've fought _damn_ hard for it! And then that red-bearded bogeyman thinks he can go and start his own schemes right behind our backs? Wreck everything when we only just got out from under Albert? Hah! What a sham!" He stomped his feet, standing tall and proud. "I'm not going to sit and let that man ruin the chance we worked so hard for! You four together could easily take Thomas. So let us three sabotage his pesky little minions!"

"Well first of all, we need to actually find Thomas before we can do anything," Mikhail started. He scratched his chin in thought. "I have to admit, having you on our side, at least for now, will be a nice weight off my back. But how on earth does anyone propose to get Thomas to show himself?"

That brought the group some halt. All but one.

"If you're going to blast the world to ashes, you usually can't do it while you're in the line of fire." Omega stated. Vent's eyes lit up at that revelation.

He pounded his fist into his palm, realizing the train of thought. "Of course! Thomas hasn't fired any of the space cannons yet. Either he's somewhere they can hit him too if he isn't careful, or he hasn't got complete control of them yet. He's in need of something, and we might be able to convince him that we have that something that he needs."

We could bait him out!" Ashe grinned. "The classic bluff bait! Awesome!"

"One problem. I don't think we have anything that he needs, and we don't know what he needs. And I'm not a great liar if we're going to bluff him," Aile admitted.

"You have a moon base." Omega huffed. "there's not much better you can do than that."

Mikhail frowned, "I'd rather not risk that but... we really don't have much choice. It's all or nothing at this point. But we still need to feed him the bait. How...?" He hummed and hawed, and no one could really give him an answer.

Prometheus pondered aloud, "Is there any way to get to the elemental Mega Men? They might be easier to track with their biometal signatures, and you can bet they'll have a direct line to Thomas."

"Very true! We can just tell them what we're planning, and they'll have to tell their boss and take the bait! But, uh... what do we tell them?" Grey asked and answered at the same time.

"If any of us try to talk to them, they might catch on and call our bluff immediately," Aile noted. "They know Vent and I are too experienced to let something important slip, so if we said anything they'd be immediately suspicious."

"And I doubt it would be safe or smart for me or Mikhail to do it. And they aren't going to listen to a random Guardian... well. They very well might. But myself or my Guardians might not survive the encounter," Prairie said worriedly.

"I'm not too experienced! They might believe me!" Grey chimed.

"Or," Prometheus started smarmily, "you could leave it to _us_. Think about it for a minute." Suspicious gazes peered at him for his input, but he continued regardless, "We've worked with them before so they'd trust us, they know we can be cryptic as hell because, let's admit it, it's fun to mess with them! And thanks to our history, we're more than willing to watch the world burn. Thomas and company might happily let us feed them a stack of lies for all they care!"

"One problem," Prairie pointed out, "you're supposed to be dead. So if you suddenly show up, very much alive, and spouting information you have no rights knowing, they're going to wonder if something is up. What could you tell them in response to that?"

"The truth," Prometheus sneered. "We tell them some silly little Guardians picked us up and tried to help us out. But we just want to watch the world burn! So we ditched them after we recovered, and just wanted to continue to destroy everything Albert made! And I mean, _everything_!"

Mikhail bared his teeth, "You little monster-! You'd ruin the world for revenge? Is that your truth!?"

"Hah hah hah! Is that the truth? Or not? Either way, watching the world burn would suit us fine!" Prometheus laughed.

"As long as we... don't burn with it... Think about it. It benefits us both... to have things happen this way. Thomas gets your bait... and you get your chance to have your showdown with him. And us... we can start our revenge... by destroying Albert's prized Mega Men..."

"Whether or not we destroy anything else beyond that point... well. Maybe we'll just wait and see how you all do!" Prometheus finished triumphantly. "Go on then! We'll open the way for you. So you show us what way the world will go! Will you triumph and save everything? Will the world burn in a rain of fire? Or will something else unexpected happen? I can't wait to see!"

"I knew we couldn't trust you." Vent snarled. Prometheus just grinned and continued his tirade.

"Maybe you can. Maybe you can't. But after being held hostage by Albert and his 'destiny of destruction' for so long... well. We'll make destiny our own. And who better to help us than the God of Destruction himself? Hah hah hah!" Prometheus made a grand gesture towards Omega, grinning all the while.

Mikhail went wide eyed, shocked at the revelation. He stared at Omega. "Wait... you are...?!"

"The one and only, _original_ ,devil reploid," Omega said, eyes narrowing. "Talk is cheap. Actions speak. Guardians? Track down one of the elemental Mega Men. Prometheus, Pandora, I will let you two take the lead. The Mega Men won't recognize me, but their biometals might, even if only by instinct. They might flee too soon. I had best stay hidden until we are sure Thomas has the information, then we destroy his Mega Men. Who knows. The knowledge that we are potentially against him might spur him to flee to the moon to escape."

"Yes. This is a... good plan." Pandora nodded. She, her brother, and Omega himself all looked to the others, their eyes glinting fiendish glee. "For now, Guardians... we are at your command..."

"I know you goody two-shoes usually like to be the hero types and try to save everyone. But now, I think you're out of any other options," Prometheus grinned. "It's no time for heroes. It's time to get things done."

The sunset gleamed in from a window behind them like a macabre parody of light. It was not a peaceful sunset. Reds and oranges glowing fiercely as the day died behind them. Wind howled outside the Grand Nuage, and the clouds were dark like ash. The colour of fire lit them up from behind, their eyes glowing bright crimson.

"We're no heroes... Just put an enemy in front of us. We will destroy it!"


	7. In which too much AoE is a thing

Without any other options and an undeniable offer on the table, the Guardians had wasted no time in finding a target. Better to let the devils fight their enemies than themselves, after all. After a quick scan, a biometal signature was found. Pandora, Prometheus and Omega were teleported near the location via the transporter on the Guardian ship.

Omega immediately stepped back, slipping into some nearby shadows. "Take the lead, my masters..." he said, but the sneer in his words was chilling even to the Model W siblings.

Prometheus scratched his nose and chuffed. "Sure thing big boy! Pandora? Let's go!"

Without further ado the group forged ahead. Their current location was the outskirts of a city, but said outskirts had been in decline for some time. The outer walls, built long ago to repel maverick attacks, were cracked and rusted. Parts had fallen away, revealing shabby buildings. Here and there a resident flitted between old alleys, the shouts of children and civilian conversations faded from distance. Omega stayed away from the walls, sticking to the low brush and foliage to hide himself from view, but Pandora and Prometheus boldly stayed to the roads and trails surrounding the area. A resident spotted them at some point, yelped, and ran off yelling about two red eyed mavericks.

Pandora huffed while her brother just grinned. "I kinda of like being able to walk in the open, eh sis?"

Her response was to hum, a small, pleased smile on her face. Prometheus could sense a streak of mischief behind it, but his mild mannered sister was not as likely as him to act on impulse so he just smirked in response. Instead the pair just turned as another resident came to see the commotion, caught two insane grins from the Model W pair, and wisely ran hell-for-leather to safety. After that, there were far fewer people that ventured outdoors. It seemed that people in the city outskirts knew full well to keep an eye out for the presence of mavericks and to stay somewhere safe when they were spotted. Half an hour of walking around and searching the vicinity revealed no elemental Mega Men immediately visible. Pandora looked around ponderously, "Hmmm... brother? Do you think... we will find... our target soon?"

"If we make a racket, sure," Prometheus noticed, "but how to go about that..."

"The destruction of the nearby city would be noticeable. Very noticeable. A few screams ought to get their attention," Omega noted blandly from behind a shrub, his voice low. And yet, despite his calm words, his somewhat eager demeanor gave him away.

"Hah! True, you brilliantly bloodthirsty bastard!" Prometheus laughed. He frowned soon afterwards however, "But that doesn't mean we're gonna draw anyone out. They might be on orders to stay low, and sending a bunch of people running and screaming wouldn't help us out in that regards."

Pandora came up with the answer, her eyes still roving the city outskirts. "There is... a strong information network... out here. If something happens... everyone will know." She pointed towards the city, and an older teen cursed and hid behind a slab of wall, his attempt at spying unsuccessful.

Prometheus twirled his staff, disappearing with it as he warped. The next thing anyone knew there was a very high pitched scream from behind the rubble. Prometheus crowed, "Go on then! You heard her, didn't you? We're looking for someone, a Mega Man that should be in the area! If I don't have a Mega Man here in the next ten minutes, I'll just have to have a _massacre_ instead! Ah hah hah hah!" Pandora watched her brother drive the spy from behind the wall. He brandished his scythe at the boy as the teen scrambled along the ground, fear catching the youth's breath in their throat as he scrambled to get back up on his feet. The teen was gone in but a moment.

The grim reaper reploid casually strolled back to his sister, twirling his weapon giddily. "Heh, did you see him run Pandora? Turns out I scared him so bad he fell backwards out of fright! Poor thing! I hope he's better at fetching than he is at standing! Ahahahaha!"

Pandora giggled. Omega couldn't help but crack a grin, red eyes blazing. "Destroying a city or two together would certainly help us learn each other's prowess in battle. I approve of this course of action."

"Destroying a whole city by ourselves? Never really managed that before, but if you think we'd have a shot at it I'm all for it eventually," Prometheus mused. He narrowed his eyes at Omega, "But you! Back off for now. Wait until the Mega Man actually shows up to show up yourself! That was the plan, remember nitwit?"

Omega said nothing, simply melting into the shadows of overgrown landscaping and abandoned forest. Red eyes gazed sternly at the two Model W users, glowing from the shadows ominously, before slowly dimming as Omega dampened his energy output to help stay hidden.

Prometheus grunted before turning to his sister with a grimace. "It's like trying to get a cat to play tricks. Bloody thing doesn't want to listen!"

Pandora leaned in conspiratorially, "Less of a cat... and more of a demon. He is... more sly than we're giving him credit for. Bound by contract, but... if he does not like us..."

Prometheus sighed, "Hmph. Yeah." He scratched his chin in thought, "Oh well. We'll keep an eye on him. He's gotta obey us no matter what for now anyways, so... meh. We'll just wait for that Mega Man and see how well he fights later. He did bring up a point, we never actually saw him in action face to face... I wonder if we'll be able to fight well together?"

Pandora hummed in agreement. The two waited for a moment, surveying the scenery. Then Pandora hummed. "Do you think... he could really destroy a whole city...?"

"With us helping? Probably. By himself? Guess we could always find out if we wanted to, really," he grinned. A few more minutes passed. Halfway through their time limit, as Prometheus was testing his scythe, their quarry appeared. Red eyes appeared first, glowing brilliantly from the shadows, before a nearly skeletal ninja appeared, stalking forwards. He was watching the two emotionlessly, as if awaiting their next move.

Siarnaq, the shadow Mega Man, had appeared. The wielder of the Model P was as solemn as ever. He walked forwards, noting how relaxed Pandora and Prometheus seemed at his presence.

"Tch! 'Bout time you got here, you lazy freak. I was about to start mowing down a few buildings if no one showed up!" laughed the Model W male.

His sister cocked her head, blinking, but saying little. Siarnaq took this as his queue. "RESPONSE TO SUMMONS NECESSARY. SUBJECTS PANDORA AND PROMETHEUS WERE AN UNEXPECTED OUTLIER TO MISSION SUCCESS. INQUIRY. SUBJECTS PANDORA AND PROMETHEUS WERE BELIEVED TERMINATED. YOUR CURRENT PRESENCE DENIES THIS DATA."

"Albert may be dead, but we're very much alive and kicking!" Prometheus gloated. "although I hear Albert's just _old news_ for you elemental Mega Men now. That red bearded fool, Thomas... isn't he the one pulling your strings now?"

Siarnaq tensed. "INFORMATION IS CONFIDENTIAL. STATE DATA SOURCE IMMEDIATELY."

Prometheus just brandished his scythe playfully in response, "Can it ninja boy. I wanna talk to the bigwig, not the errand boy! Or better yet, you do it for me!" He slammed the end of his scythe into the ground, snorting. "Drop a line to your boss and tell him we're here!"

"That will not be necessary. He already knows."

A haughty voice came from the sky. Floating down regally was the Model H Mega Man, Aeolus. His wings and posture were spread wide as he landed, showing no signs of worry despite facing two of the most fearsome Mega Men alive. "You fools made your presence very well known. Siarnaq, are there any civilians nearby?"

"NEGATIVE."

"Good. This conversation is not for the ears of infidels," he replied. The wind Mega Man crossed his arms, reserved, yet somewhat curious about the two before him. "Thomas is taking no chances with you. You will come with us, peacefully, and you will join us. Or else. Two loose cannons such as yourselves cannot be allowed free reign."

From the city emerged the other two elemental Mega Men. First was Atlas, the fiery female grinning in anticipation, while besides her was the meeker aquatic Mega Man Thetis. He looked quite a bit more nervous, but also hopeful. The group spread out, nearly surrounding the Model W Mega Men on on side.

"Hah! What a welcoming party! He's not taking any chances with us, is he? Trying to outnumber us? Oooooh we're so _scared._ Didn't even have to tell them about that Guardian _moon base_ to get 'em all here," giggled the grim reaper, not at all intimidated. He kept to his word with the Guardians though, and put emphasis on something that, for anyone else not in the know, was a piece of slipped info.

"You ought to be. Two to one odds aren't good at all for you weaklings. I can smell the blood from your injuries from here!" That was Atlas, her knuckle busters armed and ready. She brandished them eagerly, "Not that you would have done well even at full power, cowards. The odds are against you!" her eyes narrowed as she gave Prometheus a strange look. "And what do you mean, _moon base_? Tell us what you mean about a moon base!"

Pandora ignored her question, gave only the barest smile, and raised her hand gently. "The odds... are they against us...? No, silly... They are not. Come... servant." She beckoned. The servant came. Siarnaq gave a very uncharacteristic double take as Omega finally slunk into the range of his sensors, and Thetis whined at the sudden change of odds. Aeolus crinkled his nose at the diagnostics his systems were giving him.

"You. Who are you?"

The postures of the four Mega Men changed only ever so slightly, but it was apparent to trained eyes; they were nervous. And even they didn't know why.

"Our... servant. One whom even Albert... knew nothing of." Pandora said, cutting off any response Omega could have had.

"One more fool makes no difference!" Aeolus spat, although he was still taken aback by the events. "You can't hide your diagnostics from me. You two are still damaged! A third weakling Mega Man can't help you, even if you did pull him from nowhere!" His words were forceful, but the lack of faith in his own words was plain to see.

"They said the Guardians made our biometals. Did they make yours too?" Thetis asked Omega, almost friendly in his inquiry. It was as if he was trying to avoid what they all knew was coming. Siarnaq and Atlas remained stoically silent. A moment passed. Pandora and Prometheus merely watched, curious, as Omega huffed. Suddenly the devil reploid's eyes began glowing fiercely as he bared his teeth.

"Don't mistake me for some half rate copy. I am no Mega Man. I am an original!"

"It matters not. If you won't back down, we'll beat you into submission!" Atlas growled. She motioned as if to attack. The other three did the same.

"Then you'll meet the same fate as your predecessors!" Omega replied, snarling.

The fight was on. Pandora and Prometheus immediately began warping, and Omega charged Atlas head on. It took less than a second for the God of Destruction to find an immediate flaw in his battle plans. If he wasn't careful, he was going to hit his allies very quickly. Pandora was suddenly above his head, firing off a large bouncing object made from ice in Aeolus' direction. The shot scattered the wind Mega Man, but also halted Omega, who had just been about to fire off a salvo of vertical lasers to force Atlas to a distance. Instead, he was forced to dodge backwards when Atlas sensed his hesitation, surging forwards with a heavy punch. Omega ended up right next to Siarnaq, who had dashed around to avoid Prometheus warping in next to him. Kunai clashed with a magenta sword, and then another blade entered the fray as Aeolus seized his chance, aiming towards the one being bogged down.

Omega had exactly the move he needed to get some air, and punched the ground. A wave of energy blasted out in orbs. His attackers retreated with a yelp, but another yelp came from his teammate.

"Oi! Watch where you're aiming!" snapped an irate Prometheus, patting away at an energy burn on his cloak. "I thought you were supposed to be some combat ace, geeze!"

He was soon cut off from further insult by Aeolus firing off a cyclone towards him. The wind Mega Man laughed as Prometheus retreated, "You brought a very poor ally, didn't you!?"

The rest of the fight proceeded much the same, Omega trying to hold off the brunt of the onslaught while simultaneously holding back as much power as he could for fear of damaging his teammates. Pandora and Prometheus did what they could to pick away at the outskirts of the battle, warping in and out at random intervals to surprise whom they could, their guerrilla tactics paying off, but only very slowly. Too slowly. They were avoiding the majority of the damage, but the necessity of their action was plain to see. They were flagging far too quickly. Worse yet, they were sabotaging Omega. He had no idea when they were warping in, and more often than not he had to stop short of a move that would have changed the tide of battle because one of his allies was too close. They dueled across the landscapes, evasive tactics by both Omega and the Model W siblings driving the fight into a game of chase. A game where the four elemental Mega Men realized that unlike his allies, Omega couldn't warp. And that made him an easy target.

Two minutes into the fight Omega was at a breaking point. An ice dragon from Thetis had caught him unawares. The normally quiet fighter howled in utter rage. Such unearthly ferocity brought a halt to the fight, but a small one. Just a moment, and nothing more. But it was the moment Omega needed. It was then, when everyone was staring at him in fear, even his allies, that he noticed that one combatant had been avoiding the fray even more than Pandora and Prometheus. Thetis was at the farthest edge of the fight.

Of course, Omega realized. This was a fight on the ground. Leviathan, the base for Thetis' biometal, was not as good on the ground as in the water. If the aquatic Mega Man didn't keep his distance, he'd be shredded in the melee, all but useless out of water. But he'd made a fatal error. He's given the arena too much berth, hoping to be able to charge up and fire his icy dragons from afar.

It was just the distance Omega needed to avoid hitting his allies.

With a shout he fired himself forwards, leaping through the air with such speed he left a trail of afterimages behind him. Thetis was caught unawares. His face was surprisingly calm, the shock dulling his reaction for what was coming next. "Hyuh?"

Omega's signature seven-slash combo cut him down mercilessly. Blood went flying. Thetis fell to the ground, dead or alive, who knew, but Omega raised his sword again once more to finish the blue boy off for good. Siarnaq came between him and his prey, blocking with a shuriken-shaped shield. But Omega didn't care. The small part of his mind that had been worried the whole time about hitting his teammates? That part wasn't there any more. There was blood in the air, and Omega wanted _more_.

He fired off a slew of lasers. Siarnaq, swift as he was, had somehow grabbed Thetis and tried to leap out of the way. But he wasn't swift enough.

"GCK!"

Needless to say, his red scarf got a lot more red. Suddenly there were two Mega Men down. Aeolus looked shocked, and Atlas' tough exterior had absolutely cracked. She stood there in horror. Two people, two comrades, down right before her eyes, before anything could have been done. Omega recognized the PTSD right away. So, a soldier then? Omega laughed. He _laughed_.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Prometheus caught Aeolus' back, distracting him as he turned to defend himself, but Pandora's attempt to sneak attack Atlas was avoided. The fire Mega Man screamed, bearing down on the God of Destruction to save her allies. To try and recover the odds that had oh-so-suddenly flipped on their head. Omega simply caught her knuckle busters in his hands, flinching at the pain, but his cackles soon grew in volume.

"Ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HA! Foolish Mega Men! You'll die the same way your ancestors did! FIGHTING _**ME**_!"

Atlas found herself thrown into the quickly growing pile of blood and bodies nearby. The fight behind him stopped at this point. Aeolus, between Pandora and Prometheus, should probably have been fighting the two Model Ws for his life, but all three of them had stopped to watch the apparent executions in shock.

Atlas stood up, panting, between Omega and his victims. She tried to raise her buster guns, but it was obvious that she was terrified. Omega stalked forward, grinning. Behind her Siarnaq struggled back up, blood flowing from vicious plasma wounds as he tried vainly to carry the still form of Thetis over his shoulders.

"Fefnir died a tool. He never had the strength face me head on... so he let someone else do it for him, and paid for it with his life. The same with Leviathan. The same with Harpuia! But, oh, Phantom..." Omega sneered at Siarnaq, "Well. I never got a shot at him. That coward did all the work for me. Just like you! Throwing yourself in front of my sword like that? My my, how silly of you. _At least it wasn't your own blade this time_ , isn't that right Model P? If you can even hear me, worthless thing!"

Siarnaq quailed. Atlas seemed in no mental condition to defend him, and Thetis was... in dire need of medical attention. There was no question there. It seemed like nothing could save the Mega Men from their sudden dilemma. And indeed. Nothing could save them.

At least, not how they expected.

It was a truly calamitous beam. Not even Omega could have produced it. It smashed from the heavens onto the city, bright as the sun. Everything was wiped out in an instant of brilliant light and a unimaginable _boom_ of exploding air. Omega went flying. Everyone did. A shockwave of dust and ash spread like a tidal wave from the center. The Mega Men and Omega were swept up by the force, blasted away from the epicenter like leaves in a gale.

Thomas had fired a space cannon.


	8. What's with all the damn water?

Covered in dust and debris, his auditory sensors ringing from the blast, Omega dragged himself from the surrounding rubble. Fallen trees and bushes had both sheltered him from the blast, and scratched him as they splintered from the explosion. Deep gouges wracked his form. He ignored the pain and bleeding, desperately searching through the wreckage caused by the space cannon for his allies and masters. Smoke clogged the air.

"Pandora? Prometheus! Answer!"

He tried to listen out for the siblings, but all he could hear was the ringing of his auditory sensors. He really hoped they weren't dead. As much as Omega didn't like being forced to obey someone, if they ended up dead Weil's programming would force him to start destroying everything. Not that he couldn't, but it would be a monumental task he really didn't want to be bothered with right now. All signs pointed to Thomas pretty much doing the work for him at this point, anyways.

He heard coughing from under some nearby rubble. Omega quickly went to lift it up, but was met with the rather surprised visage of the flame Mega Man Atlas instead. Any reaction she might have had was quashed when Omega simply dropped the slab of concrete back down. (Come to think of it, that looked like the wall from the city? That was quite a flight distance). He had better things to do right now than deal with some second rate replicas.

Another piece of rubble moved elsewhere. Within short order a chunk of someone's roof went flying. Pandora appeared from beneath, covered in dust and looking rather peeved from the whole ordeal. She pouted, beckoning Omega to her. He obeyed. Pandora hummed, her ire somewhat mollified by his response. Omega got the distinct impression she was rather pleased by having such a loyal servant, but he didn't have time to get begrudging about it.

"Your brother. Do you think he's nearby?"

Pandora nodded, but a shifting of wreckage nearby cut off any need to respond. Prometheus scrambled out, a bit worse for wear, but nonetheless spitting dust and fury. "Blasted Thomas! I can't believe the idiot would do such a thing when his own Mega Men were nearby!"

As he pulled himself upright, another person managed to scramble out of being buried. Aeolus had no warning when Pandora attacked, interrupting his attempts to recover by smashing him brutally over the head with her staff. The _crack_ was very audible.

"Thomas... cares as much for his servants... as Albert did," Pandora summarized, watching Aeolus' prone form slump to the ground.

"Thank heavens the idiot has such bad aim. Hey! Omega! New plan. We get to Area... er, we get to the safe zone sooner rather than later. Either we spooked Thomas something hardcore when we beat the snot out of his Mega Men, or he's gotten confident and thinks he can get to that moon base early enough that he doesn't need to care about the fallout."

"Even if that was a desperation, or just a test shot, retreat is our best option right now," Omega agreed. As much as the God of Destruction would have liked to confirm his kills on the elemental Mega Men, the potential of leaving them alive was a lot less dangerous than the potential of getting hit by a second space cannon blast.

Despite being wounded, the trio made haste. They sped away from the blast site and managed to keep pace at full speed for a week, occasionally hijacking a public transporter to reach their destination as needed. The teleporter circuits around the Area C city were down, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. Occasionally the blast of a space cannon could be seen in the distance, or fleeing civilians told of whole areas wiped in an instant. The world was surely ending. Slowly. Thomas wasn't firing at full power yet. But because of the space cannon blasts, few people batted an eye at the passing of the trio, more concerned with finding safety themselves than chasing the shadows of a few mavericks.

The Guardians made no effort to contact them. They returned the favor. After all, priorities had shifted.

The trio made great time, often running through wilderness areas without stopping for days on end. The unnatural stamina of Mega Men was something to be feared, but an original reploid like Omega could make even that seem paltry. Before long the large trees of Area A were within sight.

Omega faltered. It had taken centuries of waiting in that underground cavern to get where he was today. Going back was... not an option he particularly liked. But programming, and common sense, gave him little other choice. Waiting around wasn't his style, but neither was dying like a mook. Self imprisonment it was for him, yet again. Pandora and Prometheus commanding him into it only sealed the deal.

Sometimes, pre-programmed loyalty sucked.

After a short labyrinth of doors, spike pits, and whatever else Area M and N decided to throw at them, Omega turned around and sealed the door to the underground caverns for good. Pandora froze the door, and Prometheus collapsed some rubble around it for good measure. A moment passed in silence. The outside was no longer accessible. If that door was ever to open again, the world beyond would never be the same as the one they'd left behind. It was just them, and Area N. Prometheus sighed, sitting down on a nearby stone. "So. Any guesses who'll win?"

Pandora hummed, letting herself finally relax. "In the end... I suppose it doesn't matter..."

"We may be safe, but we also have limited supplies," Omega stated. "Before we settle, we should survey what is available to us. I can survive on the energy crystals within here for... quite some time, but I am unfamiliar with what you two will require."

"Guess that's true. Very well. Let's see what we've got."

The group went to work. Because of the distorted nature of Area N, and Omega's previous long-term presence here, energy crystals were abundant. As reploids, they'd be able to function for a very long time, if necessary. But as far as repairs and whatnot were concerned, raw materials were far scarcer. Only the scattered bodies of a few mechaniloids they found and killed were present. Even the toughest of reploids needed metal and mineral supplements from time to time when actively running. And yet, that might not have been as much of an issue as first thought. Omega concentrated. The realm spluttered.

While Pandora and Prometheus were worried about this for the first moment, Omega simply smiled. "This area has cyberspace-like properties. We might be able to create anything we need from data. Sort of like manipulating data for a teleporter circuit. Only we don't need data from an original object to get a product."

"Handy as heck. So. Got any designs for things we'd need?"

Omega frowned. "Perhaps, hmm. A few hibernation machines. Sleep will be important. We are not in need of much else down here, and yet, there may be something we have in excess. Time. Waiting for the space cannons to finish firing... I'd recommend waiting a hundred years."

"Wait. WHAT!?"

"That... is a long time."

The sibling's mild shock was amusing to Omega. "Time is on our side. A hundred years is a long time for even an immortal man like Thomas to keep up his assault, should he have won. And if not, we need simply outlive the survivors who know how to deal with our threat. One hundred years is, in fact, just about the right time frame."

"Very well. We... shall wait."

And so they would. The group set to clearing space for the hibernation machines, the memory and data for which Omega was intimately familiar with. Weil had spent a lot of time studying the lab where Zero had been sealed after the elf wars, once he'd gotten his hands on it. Omega couldn't really blame him.

Halfway through construction (for such machines would hold their lives in their hands, and everything had to be carefully calibrated and tested), Pandora found a slight problem. Water was beginning to pool around the entrance to Area N. They initially thought it to merely be the defrosting of Pandora's barrier on the door, but then one day it began to drip _too_ much, and taste just a little _too_ salty. The area was properly blocked off, waterproofed, and structured so that if the water continued to come in, the air pressure from the caverns would stop any further incursions.

So then, they slept. For 100 years, on the dot.

And when they awoke, the water was everywhere.

It had begun leaking past their barriers, salty and musty. The air pressure in the room was heavy, too heavy, and the trio realized there must have been great pressure outside the doors. Therefore, with proper re-building of the dam to ensure Area N was dry, the made a small excursion outside.

Or at least, they tried.

The water pressure was deep, deep enough to block out most light. Dead tree trunks met their sight, and climbing a few of the still-standing trees led the group to a startling sight.

Water. Everywhere.

Area A was no more. Instead was a shallow sea, and by shallow, it was almost 30 meters deep. If they were not reploids, the water could easily have begun to crush them. A decision had to be made.

Prometheus was boggled. "Do we continue to wait? Or do we see what survived? I kinda don't know how to react to this."

"A scouting mission would be advisable. Then we could be sure of our decision, if nothing else," Omega offered.

"Agreed."

Without much else to go on, the group tried to see what lay around them. But Area A had certainly not been at low elevation even before the flooding, and after a few days of flogging through deep water and nearly getting separated several times, the group decided that they couldn't risk getting lost for good. They only really had each other as far as Pandora and Prometheus were concerned. Even Omega wasn't fond of the idea of losing his way, or his charges. Not knowing whether or not they were alive would have bothered his programming immensely.

The group reconvened within the safety of Area N. It was only then that they noticed the crystalline structures had thickened around them, forming a protective cone above them. Omega narrowed his eyes when he noticed a pattern.

"Odd. The crystals are forming a point aiming towards the surface. If we leave things the way they are for a while, they might eventually form an island of sorts. We could see the world a bit better from above the waves."

"How long do you think that'd take?" Prometheus asked.

"Honestly?" Omega replied, "I haven't a clue. To be frank, I feel returning to hibernation is our best option. One day, these crystals might reach the surface. But to stay awake and wait... would be rather boring."

"We do have to... practice our teamwork... at some point. Our last fight showed that we are too... unfamiliar... with each other's battle styles."

Omega grinned, because Pandora had just unwittingly given him permission to beat the shit out of the pair of them. But he offered an olive branch before they clued in, "I recommend we sleep in intervals, train for a while when waking, and check on the progress of the island afterwards. We could also work on trying to reach the Ragnarok program, if it's still active. If Thomas has died, who knows. You might be the next best thing to activating it because of Weil's DNA inside your Model Ws, as it was an access code for the Ragnarok program."

"Good idea I guess." Prometheus yawned. He grinned, "I guess if we could activate that old system, the Ragnarok code... could we be the next end of the world?"

"For now... it matters not," Pandora said, "for now... we sleep."

And so they did.

It was not centuries that passed, but millenia. Time crawled forth, and the three reploids slept below. Slept, trained, and prepared. The world forgot they were there. About the beings with the power to bring ruin to everything. And they soon forgot about the world. They became disillusioned with existence outside of Area N and spared little thought about anything but each other, or perhaps, simply weren't bothered.. They trained, they rested, and they contemplated little of anyone or anything else.

Their crystal home broke the surface of the ocean. And they didn't care. One look at the endless waters of the surface, and they laughed at how the world had ended. At how they had survived. They shunned those endless waters, and instead built a labyrinth of jewel and evil within their crystal island, a maze of energy and distorted reality, and slept deep below the surface.

But the world would wake them, one day. One sorry, sordid day of ruin.

The room they slumbered in was pitch black as they slept. As it had been for millenia before, all was silent. But then, a crack of light. The opening of a door.

"It's almost open, miss Tron!" squeaked a voice. The next moment, a crash. The door had gone flying. A small blue and yellow robot entered the room, forlornly watched the metal clatter to the ground.

"Aww. And I just spent so much time trying to open it without damaging it!" Came another squeak, slightly deeper. Several more little robots came in, all looking the same. Some swung their arms while others looked around with large, cute eyes, surveying the darkness fruitlessly.

The heavy thud of a mech echoed around the room, and soon a large machine with a skull insignia on its front smashed through the ruined doorframe. Tron Bonne, explorer, inventor, and pirate extraordinaire stomped her machine into the dark room, frowning. She surveyed the area, then growled.

"This is it? We spent all this time getting into _Ginnungagap_ , the legendary crystal isle... for a dark room? Talk about anticlimactic! And I thought that dungeon out there meant that this place would be hiding some good treasure!" A brown-haired teen popped open the roof of the cockpit, angrily flinging out an empty can of pop. It clattered to the ground, rolling into the shadows. "After I spent _all_ that money on that stupid map, and that stupid guy swearing rumours of some mother lode... huh. What a ripoff." the piratess pouted, folding her arms stubbornly.

The can crunched. Whatever the little yellow robots had been doing to pass the time came to an abrupt halt. "M-m-m-miss Tron, was that you...?"

Tron Bonne did not answer. Instead she plopped back down into the cockpit of her mech, taking a battle stance. The robots, her servbots, immediately ran to her side, sensing a fight. They were not disappointed.

Prometheus had been the first to wake. And wasn't he a sight. First his eyes appeared, glowing red with evil as he emerged from the gloom, his features barely visible due to the darkness. The skull imagery on his forehead, and the sudden activation of his energy scythe, sent the servbots quailing with fear.

"Oh... look here... Look at the fools that disturbed our eternal slumber..."

Two more sets of eyes began to glow red. Pandora''s staff whirled, glowing at the tip. Her features were shadowed, her eyes as dead and cruel as the rest of her. "What fools... to wake us... to disturb this tomb..."

"Long ago, the world was vibrant. And long ago, we were born."

The final enemy had appeared. Omega stepped forth from the darkness, his eyes and forehead jewel glowing the fiercest. He truly looked the image of a demon, framed on either side by the witch and the grim reaper.

"Long ago, the world ended. And we did not."

"The world above should have stayed dead," cackled Prometheus. "But if it didn't... we can always arrange something!"

Tron Bonne should, by all intents and purposes, have been utterly petrified were she any normal girl. But she wasn't. She steeled her nerve, fingering the controls of her mech, the _Gustaff_. Tron had her own share of battles under her belt. "Well. Not what I was expecting! But fine! I'll beat up the lot of you, and sell your parts for scrap!"

All she got in response was laughing.

" _Ware wa messia Nari! Ah ha ha ha ha!_ "

And so, the battle began.

* * *

 ** _Bonus_**

"How did we end up like this again?"

Omega's query was valid indeed. The trio of mavericks were shoved into some sort of small airship that didn't have the room for even one of them. Much less all three.

"It was going to be fun," Prometheus said. "Crashing a fighting tournament. Money! Some sort of idea about how this blasted world works despite being completely underwater. Get to the moon base so we could get access to the Ragnarok system. Good stuff right?" He grumbled, shifting. It really was a wonder how they were all in there.

"Tron said we... could fight some spiky haired boy of some sort... A strong foe. And reach the stars... with her..." Pandora added.

"Right. Can't destroy the world if you get stuck in the crossfire from your own space cannons. We can't restart Ragnarok with us down here," her brother agreed.

"We allied with a teenager. A _Teenager_. With little cutesy yellow robot servants. For _this_."

Outside the cockpit, some sort of announcer was hollering an intro. "Oh look! The Bonnes are at it again. Evil Pirates! Bet they're trying to steal the prize money and interrupt our tournament! But they let us know who they were sending this time, at least." A pause, then, "Ugh, whatever! Introducing, Servbots 42, 43, and... 44!? What? They're sending out servbots again!? Oh good lord. They're not paying me enough for this."

"Barrett! Just beat those little yellow losers up and get this over with, so we can get the money for a space ship!" Someone else yelled. Judging by the cacophony of laughter outside their small airship, it had been an audience member. And the rest of the audience was laughing. Laughing at the small airship, and those within.

Omega, ancient God of Destruction that he was, did not appreciate being mocked. He suddenly got _the look_ on his features. Omega growled, twisted, and his hands began glowing. Prometheus frowned. "I don't like it when you make that face."

"I am making that face."

"Wait. He's... making the face?"

"Yeah, Pandora, he is."

"Tron's going to... be mad... if we blow up another airship of hers."

"Brace yourselves." Omega's hand suddenly stopped glowing.

"I hate it when you say that."

The airship blasted apart. Debris rattled across the tournament grounds. The skull face plate from the front of the Bonne ship comically came to rest at the feet of their challenger, but the blast had created enough smoke to obscure the features of everyone on the white-tiled battlefield. No one could see the features of the three figures dropping from the explosion, just their shadows.

"Oh my! Looks like those servbots couldn't even pilot a ship right!" giggled the announcer. The audience laughed again, amused at the thought of three small servbots who couldn't even fly an aircraft without blowing it up.. But then, someone spoke up.

"Barrett. Something's off. I'm sensing traces of the old system!" At those words from an unknown source in the audience, everyone went quiet. From lack of knowledge, or from foreboding, who knew. Then, three sets of eyes glowed red in the smoke.

"Been a while since I killed anyone. I wonder if I've gotten rusty," Prometheus began. He said it neutrally, but the grin on his face was reflected in his voice. His scythe twirled through the air, taunting. The zephyrs of light glowed ominously from the dissipating smoke.

Pandora cracked her shoulders, floating from the smokescreen with her staff floating alongside her. "Hmm... Old system... do you think that is...?"

"Probably is. But who cares! Come on announcer! Do your job!" Prometheus moved his hands, and the smoke was swept from the fight. Across from them stood a younger male, spiky brown hair and goggles on his face. But the boy wasn't the newcomer to the tournament; Thus, he wasn't the one on which all eyes laid. Now sporting the signature symbol of the Bonnes on their chests, the two evil Mega Men and their servant faced their foe. More airships dropped from the sky, heading towards one of the buildings. As planned, the other ships were there to steal the tournament prize money now that all the fighters were tired or occupied.

Omega lifted himself from where he'd landed, slowly and with purpose. Pandora, nearby, smiled down at him before turning to their foe. "42. 43. 44. We are allied... with the Bonnes. But don't take us... for normal servbots."

"We're here to kill some time with you! Or maybe just kill you. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Prometheus laughed. He pointed his scythe towards the boy, who just laughed and prepared to fight, unscathed by the appearance of unknown enemies. He was cocky. It would be his undoing.

Omega caught the eyes of something in the audience. Or rather, something. A monkey stared back at him, but the eyes were too intelligent for some random mechaniloid. Too emotional.

After all, mechaniloids couldn't show fear.

"Let us bring this all to an end, once more." Omega stated. He drew his sword, pointing it at the challenger facing them. Pandora and Prometheus also took battle stances. Prometheus gave a Cheshire grin, and Pandora's eyes were as cold as always.

"Yes. Let's bring everything to its glorious end!"


End file.
